2026
Conference article
Open Access
Building geospatial knowledge graphs for cultural heritage with the GeoLinks API
Pratelli Nicolo, De Martino Claudio, Lenzi Emanuele, Bartalesi Valentina
The Cultural Heritage domain is rich in contextual information, often found in unstructured texts. These sources frequently reference places but typically lack the semantic structure required for geospatial integration and analysis. We introduce the GeoLinks API, a lightweight web service that extracts and links geospatial entities from narrative texts to support the automatic construction of structured geospatial knowledge graphs. The API performs two core functions: (i) extracting geometries from GeoNames IRIs, and (ii) recognising and linking place entities to Wikidata. Outputs are expressed in GeoSPARQL, enabling spatial reasoning, semantic interoperability, and integration with Linked Data infrastructures. We demonstrate the performance of the GeoLinks API on a dataset of contextual narratives related to traditional craft production, illustrating how it transforms unstructured cultural texts into machine-readable, semantically enriched geospatial knowledge. This approach advances Cultural Heritage preservation and research by making spatial context explicit and supporting new forms of digital analysis.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 16297, pp. 445-452. Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 15–17 October 2025
DOI: 10.1007/978-981-95-5009-8_31
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
Pratelli Nicolo, De Martino Claudio, Lenzi Emanuele, Bartalesi Valentina
The Cultural Heritage domain is rich in contextual information, often found in unstructured texts. These sources frequently reference places but typically lack the semantic structure required for geospatial integration and analysis. We introduce the GeoLinks API, a lightweight web service that extracts and links geospatial entities from narrative texts to support the automatic construction of structured geospatial knowledge graphs. The API performs two core functions: (i) extracting geometries from GeoNames IRIs, and (ii) recognising and linking place entities to Wikidata. Outputs are expressed in GeoSPARQL, enabling spatial reasoning, semantic interoperability, and integration with Linked Data infrastructures. We demonstrate the performance of the GeoLinks API on a dataset of contextual narratives related to traditional craft production, illustrating how it transforms unstructured cultural texts into machine-readable, semantically enriched geospatial knowledge. This approach advances Cultural Heritage preservation and research by making spatial context explicit and supporting new forms of digital analysis.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 16297, pp. 445-452. Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 15–17 October 2025
DOI: 10.1007/978-981-95-5009-8_31
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS 
| link.springer.com | CNR IRIS 
| CNR IRIS
2026
Journal article
Open Access
Interactive story maps for historical musical instruments: a 3D and semantic web tool for cultural heritage preservation
Bartalesi Valentina, Lenzi Emanuele, De Martino Claudio, Coro Gianpaolo
Ancient stringed instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries are essential for global cultural heritage but pose preservation and study challenges due to their fragility and rarity. Digital reproductions and interactive story maps offer new ways to analyse these instruments, providing historical, mechanical, and acoustic insights while aiding modern luthiers in replication. This paper presents a novel methodology and software that integrates 3D models of historical instruments into interactive story maps using Semantic Web technologies. The system enables users to explore 3D models with embedded annotations from Sketchfab and supports the creation of formal narratives enriched with geospatial and multimedia content. Each narrative event is linked to a backend knowledge base (KB) structured with established ontologies. The tool is open-source and web-based, and allows interoperability between its story maps and external KBs such as Wikidata and Europeana. It supports multiple levels of descriptive details, from precise 3D model annotations to broad geographic and temporal references. An evaluation case study featured 25 participants exploring a story map about a 1737 Antonio Stradivari violin, connected to a KB of 1716 triples. The results highlight the tool’s usability and effectiveness in representing the violin’s spatiotemporal and cultural context, showcasing the value of combining 3D models and geospatial data to enhance cultural heritage preservation.Source: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DATA SCIENCE AND ANALYTICS, vol. 22 (issue 1)
DOI: 10.1007/s41060-025-01014-4
Metrics:
Bartalesi Valentina, Lenzi Emanuele, De Martino Claudio, Coro Gianpaolo
Ancient stringed instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries are essential for global cultural heritage but pose preservation and study challenges due to their fragility and rarity. Digital reproductions and interactive story maps offer new ways to analyse these instruments, providing historical, mechanical, and acoustic insights while aiding modern luthiers in replication. This paper presents a novel methodology and software that integrates 3D models of historical instruments into interactive story maps using Semantic Web technologies. The system enables users to explore 3D models with embedded annotations from Sketchfab and supports the creation of formal narratives enriched with geospatial and multimedia content. Each narrative event is linked to a backend knowledge base (KB) structured with established ontologies. The tool is open-source and web-based, and allows interoperability between its story maps and external KBs such as Wikidata and Europeana. It supports multiple levels of descriptive details, from precise 3D model annotations to broad geographic and temporal references. An evaluation case study featured 25 participants exploring a story map about a 1737 Antonio Stradivari violin, connected to a KB of 1716 triples. The results highlight the tool’s usability and effectiveness in representing the violin’s spatiotemporal and cultural context, showcasing the value of combining 3D models and geospatial data to enhance cultural heritage preservation.Source: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DATA SCIENCE AND ANALYTICS, vol. 22 (issue 1)
DOI: 10.1007/s41060-025-01014-4
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | link.springer.com | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2026
Conference article
Open Access
Connecting cultural heritage through knowledge graphs: a case study on medieval manuscripts
Pratelli Nicolo, Lenzi Emanuele, Bartalesi Valentina
Knowledge Graphs (KGs) are increasingly leveraged in Cultural Heritage (CH) domains to enable structured, interoperable representations of artefacts, people, events, and places. The ISO CIDOC CRM, as a core reference ontology, facilitates semantic alignment and interoperability across diverse CH datasets. However, despite the CIDOC CRM, linking independently developed KGs remains a complex challenge. This paper investigates the process of integrating two KGs collecting knowledge about ancient manuscripts: the Mapping Manuscript Migrations (MMM) and the IMAGO knowledge graphs, both of which adopt CIDOC CRM as their underlying schema. Through this case study, we explore methodological and technical hurdles in aligning entities, reconciling modelling decisions, and preserving provenance and semantics during integration. We discuss strategies for identity resolution, semantic approximation, and metadata enrichment, and propose reusable patterns for future KG linking efforts in the CH domain.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 16297, pp. 494-508. Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 15–17 October 2025
DOI: 10.1007/978-981-95-5009-8_36
Metrics:
Pratelli Nicolo, Lenzi Emanuele, Bartalesi Valentina
Knowledge Graphs (KGs) are increasingly leveraged in Cultural Heritage (CH) domains to enable structured, interoperable representations of artefacts, people, events, and places. The ISO CIDOC CRM, as a core reference ontology, facilitates semantic alignment and interoperability across diverse CH datasets. However, despite the CIDOC CRM, linking independently developed KGs remains a complex challenge. This paper investigates the process of integrating two KGs collecting knowledge about ancient manuscripts: the Mapping Manuscript Migrations (MMM) and the IMAGO knowledge graphs, both of which adopt CIDOC CRM as their underlying schema. Through this case study, we explore methodological and technical hurdles in aligning entities, reconciling modelling decisions, and preserving provenance and semantics during integration. We discuss strategies for identity resolution, semantic approximation, and metadata enrichment, and propose reusable patterns for future KG linking efforts in the CH domain.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 16297, pp. 494-508. Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 15–17 October 2025
DOI: 10.1007/978-981-95-5009-8_36
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | link.springer.com | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2025
Contribution to book
Open Access
Representation and preservation of traditional crafting techniques
Zabulis X., Nikolaos P., Manikaki V., Arnaud D., Crescenzo N., Dubois A., Moreno I., Ortega Gras J. J., Puche Forte J. F., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Meghini C., Manitsaris S., Senteri G.
This paper presents a comprehensive methodology for documenting and analysing traditional craft practices through ethnographic observation, enhanced by digital technologies. The process begins with thorough preparation, including workshop setup, glossary development, and action forecasting. Data collection integrates the digitisation of tools and workspaces alongside multimodal recordings—audio, video, and motion capture—to document practitioner actions in detail. The recorded data is then systematically parsed to identify objects and actions, with expert practitioner input guiding segmentation and interpretation. These actions are subsequently modelled through simulations, linking them to archetypal behaviours for analysis and visualisation. This framework establishes a structured, semantically rich knowledge base for craft actions, offering new insights into the mechanics and meaning of traditional practices.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 15930, pp. 46-57
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-05656-6_5
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
Zabulis X., Nikolaos P., Manikaki V., Arnaud D., Crescenzo N., Dubois A., Moreno I., Ortega Gras J. J., Puche Forte J. F., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Meghini C., Manitsaris S., Senteri G.
This paper presents a comprehensive methodology for documenting and analysing traditional craft practices through ethnographic observation, enhanced by digital technologies. The process begins with thorough preparation, including workshop setup, glossary development, and action forecasting. Data collection integrates the digitisation of tools and workspaces alongside multimodal recordings—audio, video, and motion capture—to document practitioner actions in detail. The recorded data is then systematically parsed to identify objects and actions, with expert practitioner input guiding segmentation and interpretation. These actions are subsequently modelled through simulations, linking them to archetypal behaviours for analysis and visualisation. This framework establishes a structured, semantically rich knowledge base for craft actions, offering new insights into the mechanics and meaning of traditional practices.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 15930, pp. 46-57
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-05656-6_5
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | link.springer.com | doi.org | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2025
Conference article
Open Access
Linked geospatial data for rural territorial sustainability: a knowledge graph of european mountain value chains
Pratelli N., Lenzi E., Bartalesi Lenzi V.
As global urbanisation trends continue, with projections indicating that 70% of the world population will reside in cities by 2050, there is growing concern over the sustainability of rural and mountain regions. These areas face increasing depopulation, threatening their socio-economic value chains (VCs). Addressing these challenges requires access to reliable and interoperable geospatial data. Knowing the exact location of mountain VCs can provide important insights to support territorial resilience. This paper investigates how Knowledge Representation and Semantic Web technologies can enhance the analysis of geographic data to support sustainable development in rural territories. As a case study, we use data from the H2020 MOVING project, encompassing 454 VCs across 16 European mountain regions. Our findings show that semantic technologies offer a valuable framework for integrating heterogeneous datasets, thereby improving decision-making and fostering resilience in rural areas.DOI: 10.1109/ieee-ch65308.2025.11279601
Project(s): ITSERR Italian Strengthening of the ESFRI RI RESILIENCE
Metrics:
Pratelli N., Lenzi E., Bartalesi Lenzi V.
As global urbanisation trends continue, with projections indicating that 70% of the world population will reside in cities by 2050, there is growing concern over the sustainability of rural and mountain regions. These areas face increasing depopulation, threatening their socio-economic value chains (VCs). Addressing these challenges requires access to reliable and interoperable geospatial data. Knowing the exact location of mountain VCs can provide important insights to support territorial resilience. This paper investigates how Knowledge Representation and Semantic Web technologies can enhance the analysis of geographic data to support sustainable development in rural territories. As a case study, we use data from the H2020 MOVING project, encompassing 454 VCs across 16 European mountain regions. Our findings show that semantic technologies offer a valuable framework for integrating heterogeneous datasets, thereby improving decision-making and fostering resilience in rural areas.DOI: 10.1109/ieee-ch65308.2025.11279601
Project(s): ITSERR Italian Strengthening of the ESFRI RI RESILIENCE
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | ieeexplore.ieee.org | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2025
Conference article
Open Access
Weaving tales of crafts: narrative creation for cultural heritage preservation
Pratelli N., Bartalesi Lenzi V.
This study explores the transformative potential of semantic technologies and formal narratives in preserving and contextualizing Heritage Crafts (HCs) within the Craeft project, a Horizon Europe initiative (2023--2026). By applying the fabula-narration framework and utilizing the Craeft ontology, this research demonstrates how diverse craft knowledge --- from creation processes to historical contexts --- can be systematically represented, accessed, and visualized by various audiences. A case study on Limoges porcelain illustrates how integrating historical, cultural, and technical dimensions into structured narratives can effectively connect past and present craft traditions.Source: CEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS, vol. 3964, pp. 185-191. Lucca, Italy, 10/04/2025
Project(s): Craeft
Pratelli N., Bartalesi Lenzi V.
This study explores the transformative potential of semantic technologies and formal narratives in preserving and contextualizing Heritage Crafts (HCs) within the Craeft project, a Horizon Europe initiative (2023--2026). By applying the fabula-narration framework and utilizing the Craeft ontology, this research demonstrates how diverse craft knowledge --- from creation processes to historical contexts --- can be systematically represented, accessed, and visualized by various audiences. A case study on Limoges porcelain illustrates how integrating historical, cultural, and technical dimensions into structured narratives can effectively connect past and present craft traditions.Source: CEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS, vol. 3964, pp. 185-191. Lucca, Italy, 10/04/2025
Project(s): Craeft
See at:
ceur-ws.org | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2025
Journal article
Open Access
A digitally enhanced ethnography for craft action and process understanding
Zabulis X., Nikolaos P., Manikaki V., Demeridou I., Dubois A., Moreno I., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Meghini C., Manitsaris S., Senteri G.
Traditional ethnographic methods have long been employed to study craft practices, yet they often fall short of capturing the full depth of embodied knowledge, material interactions, and procedural workflows inherent in craftsmanship. This paper introduces a digitally enhanced ethnographic framework that integrates Motion Capture, 3D scanning, audiovisual documentation, and semantic knowledge representation to document both the tangible and dynamic aspects of craft processes. By distinguishing between endurant (tools, materials, objects) and perdurant (actions, events, transformations) entities, we propose a structured methodology for analyzing craft gestures, material behaviors, and production workflows. The study applies this proposed framework to eight European craft traditions—including glassblowing, tapestry weaving, woodcarving, porcelain pottery, marble carving, silversmithing, clay pottery, and textile weaving—demonstrating the adaptability of digital ethnographic tools across disciplines. Through a combination of multimodal data acquisition and expert-driven annotation, we present a comprehensive model for craft documentation that enhances the preservation, education, and analysis of artisanal knowledge. This research contributes to the ongoing evolution of ethnographic methods by bridging digital technology with Cultural Heritage studies, offering a robust framework for understanding the mechanics and meanings of craft practices.Source: APPLIED SCIENCES, vol. 15 (issue 10)
DOI: 10.3390/app15105408
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
Zabulis X., Nikolaos P., Manikaki V., Demeridou I., Dubois A., Moreno I., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Meghini C., Manitsaris S., Senteri G.
Traditional ethnographic methods have long been employed to study craft practices, yet they often fall short of capturing the full depth of embodied knowledge, material interactions, and procedural workflows inherent in craftsmanship. This paper introduces a digitally enhanced ethnographic framework that integrates Motion Capture, 3D scanning, audiovisual documentation, and semantic knowledge representation to document both the tangible and dynamic aspects of craft processes. By distinguishing between endurant (tools, materials, objects) and perdurant (actions, events, transformations) entities, we propose a structured methodology for analyzing craft gestures, material behaviors, and production workflows. The study applies this proposed framework to eight European craft traditions—including glassblowing, tapestry weaving, woodcarving, porcelain pottery, marble carving, silversmithing, clay pottery, and textile weaving—demonstrating the adaptability of digital ethnographic tools across disciplines. Through a combination of multimodal data acquisition and expert-driven annotation, we present a comprehensive model for craft documentation that enhances the preservation, education, and analysis of artisanal knowledge. This research contributes to the ongoing evolution of ethnographic methods by bridging digital technology with Cultural Heritage studies, offering a robust framework for understanding the mechanics and meanings of craft practices.Source: APPLIED SCIENCES, vol. 15 (issue 10)
DOI: 10.3390/app15105408
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | www.mdpi.com | CNR IRIS
2024
Conference article
Open Access
Using geospatial semantic web for exploring geographic knowledge in medieval manuscripts
Pratelli N., Bartalesi Lenzi V.
This paper explores the capabilities of the Geospatial Semantic Web to support scholars in studying the geographic knowledge included in medieval and Renaissance works. In the context of the Italian national research project IMAGO, we developed a CRM-based ontology that aligns with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OCG) GeoSPARQL standard. The ontology enables geospatial queries on the IMAGO knowledge graph. The results of these queries, as detailed in this paper, demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in representing the geospatial data and in inferring new knowledge. For example, using this approach, we are able to identify all the works that mention places in a specific region, or by combining geographic knowledge with knowledge about the literary genre of the works, we can identify authors who travelled to a particular territory, such as the Holy Land. Furthermore, combining temporal and geospatial information enables us to discover places within a particular territory mentioned in manuscripts of a specific century. These examples demonstrate the potential of the Geospatial Semantic Web approach to uncover previously hidden connections and enrich our understanding of historical and geographical data.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 15178, pp. 74-84. Ljubljana, Slovenia, 24–27/09/2024
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-72440-4_7
Metrics:
Pratelli N., Bartalesi Lenzi V.
This paper explores the capabilities of the Geospatial Semantic Web to support scholars in studying the geographic knowledge included in medieval and Renaissance works. In the context of the Italian national research project IMAGO, we developed a CRM-based ontology that aligns with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OCG) GeoSPARQL standard. The ontology enables geospatial queries on the IMAGO knowledge graph. The results of these queries, as detailed in this paper, demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in representing the geospatial data and in inferring new knowledge. For example, using this approach, we are able to identify all the works that mention places in a specific region, or by combining geographic knowledge with knowledge about the literary genre of the works, we can identify authors who travelled to a particular territory, such as the Holy Land. Furthermore, combining temporal and geospatial information enables us to discover places within a particular territory mentioned in manuscripts of a specific century. These examples demonstrate the potential of the Geospatial Semantic Web approach to uncover previously hidden connections and enrich our understanding of historical and geographical data.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 15178, pp. 74-84. Ljubljana, Slovenia, 24–27/09/2024
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-72440-4_7
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | link.springer.com | doi.org | IRIS Cnr | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS | IRIS Cnr
2024
Journal article
Open Access
Using large language models to create narrative events
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Lenzi E., De Martino C.
Narratives play a crucial role in human communication, serving as a means to convey experiences, perspectives, and meanings across various domains. They are particularly significant in scientific communities, where narratives are often utilized to explain complex phenomena and share knowledge. This article explores the possibility of integrating large language models (LLMs) into a workflow that, exploiting the Semantic Web technologies, transforms raw textual data gathered by scientific communities into narratives. In particular, we focus on using LLMs to automatically create narrative events, maintaining the reliability of the generated texts. The study provides a conceptual definition of narrative events and evaluates the performance of different smaller LLMs compared to the requirements we identified. A key aspect of the experiment is the emphasis on maintaining the integrity of the original narratives in the LLM outputs, as experts often review texts produced by scientific communities to ensure their accuracy and reliability. We first perform an evaluation on a corpus of five narratives and then on a larger dataset comprising 124 narratives. LLaMA 2 is identified as the most suitable model for generating narrative events that closely align with the input texts, demonstrating its ability to generate high-quality narrative events. Prompt engineering techniques are then employed to enhance the performance of the selected model, leading to further improvements in the quality of the generated texts.Source: PEERJ. COMPUTER SCIENCE., vol. 10
DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.2242
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Lenzi E., De Martino C.
Narratives play a crucial role in human communication, serving as a means to convey experiences, perspectives, and meanings across various domains. They are particularly significant in scientific communities, where narratives are often utilized to explain complex phenomena and share knowledge. This article explores the possibility of integrating large language models (LLMs) into a workflow that, exploiting the Semantic Web technologies, transforms raw textual data gathered by scientific communities into narratives. In particular, we focus on using LLMs to automatically create narrative events, maintaining the reliability of the generated texts. The study provides a conceptual definition of narrative events and evaluates the performance of different smaller LLMs compared to the requirements we identified. A key aspect of the experiment is the emphasis on maintaining the integrity of the original narratives in the LLM outputs, as experts often review texts produced by scientific communities to ensure their accuracy and reliability. We first perform an evaluation on a corpus of five narratives and then on a larger dataset comprising 124 narratives. LLaMA 2 is identified as the most suitable model for generating narrative events that closely align with the input texts, demonstrating its ability to generate high-quality narrative events. Prompt engineering techniques are then employed to enhance the performance of the selected model, leading to further improvements in the quality of the generated texts.Source: PEERJ. COMPUTER SCIENCE., vol. 10
DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.2242
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
See at:
PeerJ Computer Science | PeerJ Computer Science | IRIS Cnr | IRIS Cnr | CNR IRIS
2024
Journal article
Open Access
Modelling and simulation of traditional craft actions
Zabulis X., Partarakis N., Demeridou I., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Meghini C., Nikolaou N., Fallahian P.
The problem of modelling and simulating traditional crafting actions is addressed, motivated by the goals of craft understanding, documentation, and training. First, the physical entities involved in crafting actions are identified, physically, and semantically characterised, including causing entities, conditions, properties, and objects, as well as the space and time in which they occur. Actions are semantically classified into a taxonomy of four classes according to their goals, which are shown to exhibit similarities in their operation principles and utilised tools. This classification is employed to simplify the create archetypal simulators, based on the Finite Element Method, by developing archetypal simulators for each class and specialising them in craft-specific actions. The approach is validated by specialising the proposed archetypes into indicative craft actions and predicting their results in simulation. The simulated actions are rendered in 3D to create visual demonstrations and can be integrated into game engines for training applications.Source: APPLIED SCIENCES, vol. 14 (issue 17)
DOI: 10.3390/app14177750
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
Zabulis X., Partarakis N., Demeridou I., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Meghini C., Nikolaou N., Fallahian P.
The problem of modelling and simulating traditional crafting actions is addressed, motivated by the goals of craft understanding, documentation, and training. First, the physical entities involved in crafting actions are identified, physically, and semantically characterised, including causing entities, conditions, properties, and objects, as well as the space and time in which they occur. Actions are semantically classified into a taxonomy of four classes according to their goals, which are shown to exhibit similarities in their operation principles and utilised tools. This classification is employed to simplify the create archetypal simulators, based on the Finite Element Method, by developing archetypal simulators for each class and specialising them in craft-specific actions. The approach is validated by specialising the proposed archetypes into indicative craft actions and predicting their results in simulation. The simulated actions are rendered in 3D to create visual demonstrations and can be integrated into game engines for training applications.Source: APPLIED SCIENCES, vol. 14 (issue 17)
DOI: 10.3390/app14177750
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
See at:
Applied Sciences | Applied Sciences | IRIS Cnr | IRIS Cnr | CNR IRIS
2024
Journal article
Open Access
A semantic knowledge graph of European mountain value chains
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Coro G., Lenzi E., Pratelli N., Pagano P., Moretti M., Brunori G.
The United Nations forecast a significant shift in global population distribution by 2050, with rural populations projected to decline. This decline will particularly challenge mountain areas' cultural heritage, well-being, and economic sustainability. Understanding the economic, environmental, and societal effects of rural population decline is particularly important in Europe, where mountainous regions are vital for supplying goods. The present paper describes a geospatially explicit semantic knowledge graph containing information on 454 European mountain value chains. It is the first large-size, structured collection of information on mountain value chains. Our graph, structured through ontology-based semantic modelling, offers representations of the value chains in the form of narratives. The graph was constructed semi-automatically from unstructured data provided by mountain-area expert scholars. It is accessible through a public repository and explorable through interactive Story Maps and a semantic Web service. Through semantic queries, we demonstrate that the graph allows for exploring territorial complexities and discovering new knowledge on mountain areas' environmental, societal, territory, and economic aspects that could help stem depopulation.Source: SCIENTIFIC DATA, vol. 11
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-03760-9
Project(s): Mountain Valorization through Interconnectedness and Green Growth
Metrics:
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Coro G., Lenzi E., Pratelli N., Pagano P., Moretti M., Brunori G.
The United Nations forecast a significant shift in global population distribution by 2050, with rural populations projected to decline. This decline will particularly challenge mountain areas' cultural heritage, well-being, and economic sustainability. Understanding the economic, environmental, and societal effects of rural population decline is particularly important in Europe, where mountainous regions are vital for supplying goods. The present paper describes a geospatially explicit semantic knowledge graph containing information on 454 European mountain value chains. It is the first large-size, structured collection of information on mountain value chains. Our graph, structured through ontology-based semantic modelling, offers representations of the value chains in the form of narratives. The graph was constructed semi-automatically from unstructured data provided by mountain-area expert scholars. It is accessible through a public repository and explorable through interactive Story Maps and a semantic Web service. Through semantic queries, we demonstrate that the graph allows for exploring territorial complexities and discovering new knowledge on mountain areas' environmental, societal, territory, and economic aspects that could help stem depopulation.Source: SCIENTIFIC DATA, vol. 11
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-03760-9
Project(s): Mountain Valorization through Interconnectedness and Green Growth
Metrics:
See at:
Scientific Data | Scientific Data | IRIS Cnr | IRIS Cnr | Software Heritage | GitHub | CNR IRIS
2024
Journal article
Open Access
Multimodal dictionaries for traditional craft education
Zabulis X., Partarakis N., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Meghini C., Dubois A., Moreno I., Manitsaris S.
We address the problem of systematizing the authoring of digital dictionaries for craft education from ethnographic studies and recordings. First, we present guidelines for the collection of ethnographic data using digital audio and video and identify terms that are central in the description of crafting actions, products, tools, and materials. Second, we present a classification scheme for craft terms and a way to semantically annotate them, using a multilingual and hierarchical thesaurus, which provides term definitions and a semantic hierarchy of these terms. Third, we link ethnographic resources and open-access data to the identified terms using an online platform for the representation of traditional crafts, associating their definition with illustrations, examples of use, and 3D models. We validate the efficacy of the approach by creating multimedia vocabularies for an online eLearning platform for introductory courses to nine traditional crafts.Source: MULTIMODAL TECHNOLOGIES AND INTERACTION, vol. 8 (issue 7)
DOI: 10.3390/mti8070063
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
Zabulis X., Partarakis N., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Meghini C., Dubois A., Moreno I., Manitsaris S.
We address the problem of systematizing the authoring of digital dictionaries for craft education from ethnographic studies and recordings. First, we present guidelines for the collection of ethnographic data using digital audio and video and identify terms that are central in the description of crafting actions, products, tools, and materials. Second, we present a classification scheme for craft terms and a way to semantically annotate them, using a multilingual and hierarchical thesaurus, which provides term definitions and a semantic hierarchy of these terms. Third, we link ethnographic resources and open-access data to the identified terms using an online platform for the representation of traditional crafts, associating their definition with illustrations, examples of use, and 3D models. We validate the efficacy of the approach by creating multimedia vocabularies for an online eLearning platform for introductory courses to nine traditional crafts.Source: MULTIMODAL TECHNOLOGIES AND INTERACTION, vol. 8 (issue 7)
DOI: 10.3390/mti8070063
Project(s): Craeft
Metrics:
See at:
Multimodal Technologies and Interaction | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction | IRIS Cnr | IRIS Cnr | Hal | Hal | Hal | CNR IRIS
2024
Other
Open Access
AIMH Research Activities 2024
Aloia N., Amato G., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Bianchi L., Bolettieri P., Bosio C., Carraglia M., Carrara F., Casarosa V., Cassese M., Ciampi L., Coccomini D. A., Concordia C., Connor R., Corbara S., De Martino C., Di Benedetto M., Esuli A., Falchi F., Fazzari E., Gennaro C., Iannello L., Negi K., Lagani G., Lenzi E., Leocata M., Malvaldi M., Meghini C., Messina N., Moreo Fernandez A., Nardi A., Pacini G., Pedrotti A., Pratelli N., Puccetti G., Rabitti F., Savino P., Scotti F., Sebastiani F., Sperduti G., Thanos C., Trupiano L., Vadicamo L., Vairo C., Versienti L., Volpi L.
The AIMH (Artificial Intelligence for Media and Humanities) laboratory is committed to advancing the field of Artificial Intelligence, with a special emphasis on its applications in digital media and the humanities. The lab aims to improve AI technologies, particularly in areas such as deep learning, text analysis, computer vision, multimedia information retrieval, content analysis, recognition, and retrieval. This report summarizes the laboratory’s achievements and activities over the course of 2024.DOI: 10.32079/isti-ar-2024/001
Metrics:
Aloia N., Amato G., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Bianchi L., Bolettieri P., Bosio C., Carraglia M., Carrara F., Casarosa V., Cassese M., Ciampi L., Coccomini D. A., Concordia C., Connor R., Corbara S., De Martino C., Di Benedetto M., Esuli A., Falchi F., Fazzari E., Gennaro C., Iannello L., Negi K., Lagani G., Lenzi E., Leocata M., Malvaldi M., Meghini C., Messina N., Moreo Fernandez A., Nardi A., Pacini G., Pedrotti A., Pratelli N., Puccetti G., Rabitti F., Savino P., Scotti F., Sebastiani F., Sperduti G., Thanos C., Trupiano L., Vadicamo L., Vairo C., Versienti L., Volpi L.
The AIMH (Artificial Intelligence for Media and Humanities) laboratory is committed to advancing the field of Artificial Intelligence, with a special emphasis on its applications in digital media and the humanities. The lab aims to improve AI technologies, particularly in areas such as deep learning, text analysis, computer vision, multimedia information retrieval, content analysis, recognition, and retrieval. This report summarizes the laboratory’s achievements and activities over the course of 2024.DOI: 10.32079/isti-ar-2024/001
Metrics:
2024
Journal article
Open Access
Representing geospatial knowledge in narratives
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N.
This paper explores the representation of geospatial knowledge within narratives through a Semantic Web approach. We introduce the NOnt+Space (NOnt+S) model, an extension of the CIDOC CRM-based Narrative Ontology, which allows the representation of narratives and their geospatial aspects. By leveraging standards such as CRMgeo and GeoSPARQL, NOnt+S ensures systematic and interoperable geospatial representation in narratives, enabling geospatial queries on knowledge graphs. We present an assessment of NOnt+S utilising data from the H2020 MOVING European project (2021-2024), which collected knowledge about European mountain value chains intended as Cultural Heritage. We have represented this knowledge as geospatial narratives using NOnt+S. GeoSPARQL queries and semantic reasoning applied to the created KG reveal the ontology ability to infer new geospatial knowledge. Our work contributes to the ongoing efforts in the Semantic Web community to integrate and represent geospatial information within narratives, promoting collaboration and interoperability across various scientific domains.Source: JOURNAL ON COMPUTING AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
DOI: 10.1145/3703918
Metrics:
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N.
This paper explores the representation of geospatial knowledge within narratives through a Semantic Web approach. We introduce the NOnt+Space (NOnt+S) model, an extension of the CIDOC CRM-based Narrative Ontology, which allows the representation of narratives and their geospatial aspects. By leveraging standards such as CRMgeo and GeoSPARQL, NOnt+S ensures systematic and interoperable geospatial representation in narratives, enabling geospatial queries on knowledge graphs. We present an assessment of NOnt+S utilising data from the H2020 MOVING European project (2021-2024), which collected knowledge about European mountain value chains intended as Cultural Heritage. We have represented this knowledge as geospatial narratives using NOnt+S. GeoSPARQL queries and semantic reasoning applied to the created KG reveal the ontology ability to infer new geospatial knowledge. Our work contributes to the ongoing efforts in the Semantic Web community to integrate and represent geospatial information within narratives, promoting collaboration and interoperability across various scientific domains.Source: JOURNAL ON COMPUTING AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
DOI: 10.1145/3703918
Metrics:
See at:
IRIS Cnr | Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage | IRIS Cnr | Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2023
Journal article
Open Access
From unstructured texts to semantic story maps
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Coro G., Lenzi E., Pagano P., Pratelli N.
Digital maps greatly support storytelling about territories, especially when enriched with data describing cultural, societal, and ecological aspects, conveying emotional messages that describe the territory as a whole. Story maps are interactive online digital narratives that can describe a territory beyond its map by enriching the map with text, pictures, videos, and other multimedia information. This paper presents a semi-automatic workflow to produce story maps from textual documents containing territory data. An expert first assembles one territory-contextual document containing text and images. Then, automatic processes use natural language processing and Wikidata services to (i) extract key concepts (entities) and geospatial coordinates associated with the territory, (ii) assemble a logically-ordered sequence of enriched story-map events, and (iii) openly publish online story maps and an interoperable Linked Open Data semantic knowledge base for event exploration and inter-story correlation analyses. Our workflow uses an Open Science-oriented methodology to publish all processes and data. Through our workflow, we produced story maps for the value chains and territories of 23 rural European areas of 16 countries. Through numerical evaluation, we demonstrated that territory experts considered the story maps effective in describing their territories, and appropriate for communicating with citizens and stakeholders.Source: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DIGITAL EARTH (ONLINE), vol. 16 (issue 1), pp. 234-250
DOI: 10.1080/17538947.2023.2168774
Project(s): MOVING
Metrics:
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Coro G., Lenzi E., Pagano P., Pratelli N.
Digital maps greatly support storytelling about territories, especially when enriched with data describing cultural, societal, and ecological aspects, conveying emotional messages that describe the territory as a whole. Story maps are interactive online digital narratives that can describe a territory beyond its map by enriching the map with text, pictures, videos, and other multimedia information. This paper presents a semi-automatic workflow to produce story maps from textual documents containing territory data. An expert first assembles one territory-contextual document containing text and images. Then, automatic processes use natural language processing and Wikidata services to (i) extract key concepts (entities) and geospatial coordinates associated with the territory, (ii) assemble a logically-ordered sequence of enriched story-map events, and (iii) openly publish online story maps and an interoperable Linked Open Data semantic knowledge base for event exploration and inter-story correlation analyses. Our workflow uses an Open Science-oriented methodology to publish all processes and data. Through our workflow, we produced story maps for the value chains and territories of 23 rural European areas of 16 countries. Through numerical evaluation, we demonstrated that territory experts considered the story maps effective in describing their territories, and appropriate for communicating with citizens and stakeholders.Source: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DIGITAL EARTH (ONLINE), vol. 16 (issue 1), pp. 234-250
DOI: 10.1080/17538947.2023.2168774
Project(s): MOVING
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | www.tandfonline.com | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2023
Book
Restricted
Semantic Web - Introduction to Semantic Web languages
Meghini C, Bartalesi Lenzi V
The Web makes a very large amount of information available to users in the form of documents. The Semantic Web is a fundamental extension of the web as it allows, in addition to documents, the sharing of data (including document metadata) in a standard format along with their semantic context expressed in a formal and shared language. Applications in documentary science, biology, cultural heritage and electronic commerce have already demonstrated the validity of this approach. This volume constitutes a gentle introduction to the technologies and languages of the semantic web, clearly illustrating the steps necessary to transform a product published on the web into a set of data that can be processed and reused across applications, users and communities. This is the second monograph of the ebook series "Digital Culture Notebooks" edited by the Laboratory of Digital Culture of the University of Pisa (http://www.labcd.unipi.it) and published by Simonelli editore. The series houses short monographs on tools and research in the field of Digital Humanities which emerged from the work of teachers and students who collaborate with the Laboratory itself. It aims to support a wider dissemination of digital culture, understood as the field in which the humanities and some sectors of informatics interact and collaborate.
Meghini C, Bartalesi Lenzi V
The Web makes a very large amount of information available to users in the form of documents. The Semantic Web is a fundamental extension of the web as it allows, in addition to documents, the sharing of data (including document metadata) in a standard format along with their semantic context expressed in a formal and shared language. Applications in documentary science, biology, cultural heritage and electronic commerce have already demonstrated the validity of this approach. This volume constitutes a gentle introduction to the technologies and languages of the semantic web, clearly illustrating the steps necessary to transform a product published on the web into a set of data that can be processed and reused across applications, users and communities. This is the second monograph of the ebook series "Digital Culture Notebooks" edited by the Laboratory of Digital Culture of the University of Pisa (http://www.labcd.unipi.it) and published by Simonelli editore. The series houses short monographs on tools and research in the field of Digital Humanities which emerged from the work of teachers and students who collaborate with the Laboratory itself. It aims to support a wider dissemination of digital culture, understood as the field in which the humanities and some sectors of informatics interact and collaborate.
See at:
CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS | www.mondadoristore.it
2023
Journal article
Open Access
Using Semantic Web to create and explore an index of toponyms cited in Medieval geographical works
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Lenzi E., Pontari P.
Western thought in European history was mainly affected by the image of the world created during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The most popular reason to travel during the Middle Ages was taking a pilgrimage. Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela were the most popular destinations. It is not surprising that a lot of works written by travellers as guides for pilgrims exist. By the beginning of the Renaissance, a more precise image of the world was defined thanks to the discovery of ancient geographical models, especially the work of Ptolemy. The three years (2020-2023) Italian National research project IMAGO - Index Medii Aevi Geographiae Operum - aims to provide a systematic overview of the medieval and renaissance Latin geographical literature using the Semantic Web technologies and the LOD paradigm. Indeed, until now, this literature has not been studied using digital methods. In particular, this paper presents how we formally represented the knowledge about the toponyms, or place names, in the IMAGO ontology. To maximise the interoperability, we developed the IMAGO ontology as an extension of two reference vocabularies: the CIDOC CRM and its extension FRBRoo, including its in-progress reformulation, LRMoo. Furthermore, we used Wikidata as reference knowledge base. As case study, we chose to represent the knowledge related to the toponyms cited by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri in his Latin works. We carried out a first experiment for visualising the knowledge about these toponyms on a map and in the form of tables and CSV files.Source: JOURNAL ON COMPUTING AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
DOI: 10.1145/3582263
Metrics:
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Pratelli N., Lenzi E., Pontari P.
Western thought in European history was mainly affected by the image of the world created during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The most popular reason to travel during the Middle Ages was taking a pilgrimage. Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela were the most popular destinations. It is not surprising that a lot of works written by travellers as guides for pilgrims exist. By the beginning of the Renaissance, a more precise image of the world was defined thanks to the discovery of ancient geographical models, especially the work of Ptolemy. The three years (2020-2023) Italian National research project IMAGO - Index Medii Aevi Geographiae Operum - aims to provide a systematic overview of the medieval and renaissance Latin geographical literature using the Semantic Web technologies and the LOD paradigm. Indeed, until now, this literature has not been studied using digital methods. In particular, this paper presents how we formally represented the knowledge about the toponyms, or place names, in the IMAGO ontology. To maximise the interoperability, we developed the IMAGO ontology as an extension of two reference vocabularies: the CIDOC CRM and its extension FRBRoo, including its in-progress reformulation, LRMoo. Furthermore, we used Wikidata as reference knowledge base. As case study, we chose to represent the knowledge related to the toponyms cited by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri in his Latin works. We carried out a first experiment for visualising the knowledge about these toponyms on a map and in the form of tables and CSV files.Source: JOURNAL ON COMPUTING AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
DOI: 10.1145/3582263
Metrics:
See at:
dl.acm.org | CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2023
Journal article
Open Access
An exploratory approach to data driven knowledge creation
Thanos C., Meghini C., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Coro G.
This paper describes a new approach to knowledge creation that is instrumental for the emerging paradigm of data-intensive science. The proposed approach enables the acquisition of new insights from the data by exploiting existing relationships between diverse types of datasets acquired through various modalities. The value of data consistently improves when it can be linked to other data because linking multiple types of datasets allows creating novel data patterns within a scientific data space. These patterns enable the exploratory data analysis, an analysis strategy that emphasizes incremental and adaptive access to the datasets constituting a scientific data space while maintaining an open mind to alternative possibilities of data interconnectivity. A technology, the Linked Open data (LOD), was developed to enable the linking of datasets. We argue that the LOD technology presents several limitations that prevent the full exploitation of this technology to acquire new insights. In this paper, we outline a new approach that enables researchers to dynamically create data patterns in a research data space by exploiting explicit and implicit/hidden relationships between distributed research datasets. This dynamic creation of data patterns enables the exploratory data analysis strategy.Source: JOURNAL OF BIG DATA, vol. 10
DOI: 10.1186/s40537-023-00702-x
Metrics:
Thanos C., Meghini C., Bartalesi Lenzi V., Coro G.
This paper describes a new approach to knowledge creation that is instrumental for the emerging paradigm of data-intensive science. The proposed approach enables the acquisition of new insights from the data by exploiting existing relationships between diverse types of datasets acquired through various modalities. The value of data consistently improves when it can be linked to other data because linking multiple types of datasets allows creating novel data patterns within a scientific data space. These patterns enable the exploratory data analysis, an analysis strategy that emphasizes incremental and adaptive access to the datasets constituting a scientific data space while maintaining an open mind to alternative possibilities of data interconnectivity. A technology, the Linked Open data (LOD), was developed to enable the linking of datasets. We argue that the LOD technology presents several limitations that prevent the full exploitation of this technology to acquire new insights. In this paper, we outline a new approach that enables researchers to dynamically create data patterns in a research data space by exploiting explicit and implicit/hidden relationships between distributed research datasets. This dynamic creation of data patterns enables the exploratory data analysis strategy.Source: JOURNAL OF BIG DATA, vol. 10
DOI: 10.1186/s40537-023-00702-x
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | journalofbigdata.springeropen.com | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS
2023
Conference article
Open Access
A web tool to create and visualise semantic story maps
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Lenzi E., Pratelli N.
This paper presents the Story Map Building and Visualizing Tool (SMBVT), a sofware that allows users to create and visualise semantic story maps using a user-friendly web interface. The tool uses Wikidata as external reference knowledge base and exploits Semantic Web technologies in the back-end system to represent stories modelled on the Narrative ontology, a CRM-based vocabulary for representing narratives. SMBVT is entirely open-source and accessible afer free registration.Source: CEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS, pp. 163-169. Dublin, Ireland, 02/04/2023
Bartalesi Lenzi V., Lenzi E., Pratelli N.
This paper presents the Story Map Building and Visualizing Tool (SMBVT), a sofware that allows users to create and visualise semantic story maps using a user-friendly web interface. The tool uses Wikidata as external reference knowledge base and exploits Semantic Web technologies in the back-end system to represent stories modelled on the Narrative ontology, a CRM-based vocabulary for representing narratives. SMBVT is entirely open-source and accessible afer free registration.Source: CEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS, pp. 163-169. Dublin, Ireland, 02/04/2023
See at:
ceur-ws.org | CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS
2023
Conference article
Open Access
Creating and visualising semantic story maps
Bartalesi Lenzi V.
A narrative is a conceptual basis of collective human understanding. Humans use stories to represent characters' intentions, feelings and the attributes of objects, and events. A widely-held thesis in psychology to justify the centrality of narrative in human life is that humans make sense of reality by structuring events into narratives. Therefore, narratives are central to human activity in cultural, scientic, and social areas. Story maps are computer science realizations of narratives based on maps. They are online interactive maps enriched with text, pictures, videos, and other multimedia information, whose aim is to tell a story over a territory. This talk presents a semi-automatic workow that, using a CRM-based ontology and the Semantic Web technologies, produces semantic narratives in the form of story maps (and timelines as an alternative representation) from textual documents. An expert user rst assembles one territory-contextual document containing text and images. Then, automatic processes use natural language processing and Wikidata services to (i) extract entities and geospatial points of interest associated with the territory, (ii) assemble a logically-ordered sequence of events that constitute the narrative, enriched with entities and images, and (iii) openly publish online semantic story maps and an interoperable Linked Open Data-compliant knowledge base for event exploration and inter-story correlation analyses. Once the story maps are published, the users can review them through a user-friendly web tool. Overall, our workow complies with Open Science directives of open publication and multi-discipline support and is appropriate to convey "information going beyond the map" to scientists and the large public. As demonstrations, the talk will show workow-produced story maps to represent (i) 23 European rural areas across 16 countries, their value chains and territories, (ii) a Medieval journey, (iii) the history of the legends, biological investigations, and AI-based modelling for habitat discovery of the giant squid Architeuthis dux.Source: CEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS, pp. 3-4. Dublin, Ireland, 02/04/2023
Bartalesi Lenzi V.
A narrative is a conceptual basis of collective human understanding. Humans use stories to represent characters' intentions, feelings and the attributes of objects, and events. A widely-held thesis in psychology to justify the centrality of narrative in human life is that humans make sense of reality by structuring events into narratives. Therefore, narratives are central to human activity in cultural, scientic, and social areas. Story maps are computer science realizations of narratives based on maps. They are online interactive maps enriched with text, pictures, videos, and other multimedia information, whose aim is to tell a story over a territory. This talk presents a semi-automatic workow that, using a CRM-based ontology and the Semantic Web technologies, produces semantic narratives in the form of story maps (and timelines as an alternative representation) from textual documents. An expert user rst assembles one territory-contextual document containing text and images. Then, automatic processes use natural language processing and Wikidata services to (i) extract entities and geospatial points of interest associated with the territory, (ii) assemble a logically-ordered sequence of events that constitute the narrative, enriched with entities and images, and (iii) openly publish online semantic story maps and an interoperable Linked Open Data-compliant knowledge base for event exploration and inter-story correlation analyses. Once the story maps are published, the users can review them through a user-friendly web tool. Overall, our workow complies with Open Science directives of open publication and multi-discipline support and is appropriate to convey "information going beyond the map" to scientists and the large public. As demonstrations, the talk will show workow-produced story maps to represent (i) 23 European rural areas across 16 countries, their value chains and territories, (ii) a Medieval journey, (iii) the history of the legends, biological investigations, and AI-based modelling for habitat discovery of the giant squid Architeuthis dux.Source: CEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS, pp. 3-4. Dublin, Ireland, 02/04/2023
See at:
ceur-ws.org | CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS